(a) Field
Embodiments relate to a driving apparatus and a driving method of a light emitting diode (LED) device.
(b) Description of the Related Art
An LED device supplies a current to LEDs to drive them, and the LEDs emit light having brightness corresponding to the current. The LED device may be used as a light source of a non-emissive type of display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or for lighting. The LED device includes a plurality of LED channels that are connected in parallel to emit light having predetermined brightness. Each LED channel includes a plurality of LEDs connected in series. Further, the LED device includes a power converter for supplying the currents to the plurality of LED channels.
If any one of the plurality of LED channels is short-circuited, the power converter is overloaded. As a result, the power converter may be destroyed. Therefore, the LED device includes a protection circuit for protecting the power converter.
One example of the protection circuit is a circuit for sensing a voltage at end terminal of each LED channel to stop operation of the power converter when the voltage at the end terminal becomes 0V. However, even when a connection between two LEDs of the LED channel is open-circuited, the end terminal voltage of the LED channel becomes 0V. In this case, if the other LED channels are normally operated, the LED devices can supply the light having the predetermined brightness. Accordingly, it is not required for the operation of the LED device to be stopped. However, the existing protection circuit stops the operation of the power converter when the connection of the LEDs is open-circuited.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.